From 'Kent in Prehistoric Times' by Paul Ashbee.The circumstances of discovery of the various single objects are well illustrated, for example, by the torque (Bronze age) from Gillingham, which was found on Chatham Lines 'between the Sally Port and Brompton Barrier, by a party of soldiers throwing up a battery.'a ref is given as C Roach Smith, 1874. Gold Torques and Armillae discovered in Kent, Archaeologia Cantiana, 9, 1-11.

I wonder what happened to this, I might contact the RE Museum and see if they have any information on it. I wonder if it might be part of a prehistoric cup or an iron age torc, although the weight suggests quite a large object.

merc

While a party of Royal Engineers, under Quartermaster-Sergeant Gallagher, were engaged in throwing up a battery near Prince Edward's Bastion on the Lower Lines, one of the men, Sapper Goodall, turned up, about 3 ft. below the surface, a massive piece of gold. The gold is almost in the shape of a "crook" of a cornet, the outside being fluted, one end being about about half an inch and the other five-eighths of an inch in diameter; it weighs about 2 and a half pounds. The gold is of the purest quality. The relic is in possesion of the Commandant of the School of Military Engineering, and it will be forwarded to the Officers of the Crown as Treasure Trove. How it came to be buried where found is a matter of conjecture; it is supposed that the gold formed part of a sceptre.